Apologies
by I'mAwfulAtThinkingOfUsernames
Summary: A seemingly harmless comment can easily escalate when an insane, homicidal and emotionally unstable AI is in love with you. ChellDOS. T for Swearing... Man, I suck at thinking of titles. It was either that, or "A daring daylight robbery of Fort Knox on elephant back." That's the dumbest title I ever heard. Title/chapters may be edited in the future.
1. Chapter 1

Chell sat alone in her ground-floor apartment, typing away at an email to her boss. It was stupid, pointless really, but she had to apologize and give a reason for her not coming into work for two days, or she would risk losing her job. She was on thin ice already, and she was fairly sure that the manager loathed her with a passion. As a matter of fact, none of her co-workers seemed to like her. She mostly kept to herself, but even the ones she tried to befriend rejected her. She honestly couldn't care less.

Chell finished typing and read over her letter. No. Her boss didn't need to know that much. Just the bare essentials. Pausing her revision, Chell reached over to take the large container of chocolate ice-cream next to her laptop. Grabbing the spoon and taking a bite, she gazed at nothing in particular, letting it melt in her mouth, the flavor washing over her tongue.

As she put the finishing touches on the email, the muffled thuds of raindrops drifted in through her closed window. Tears unexpectedly welled up in her eyes, as if triggered by the heavy rain.

Clicking send and standing up to stretch, Chell closed her eyes tightly. She had no one to talk to. No one to comfort her. She'd thought that maybe, just maybe, if she wrote her feelings down, she would feel better. If anything, she felt worse. She had always stayed strong at Aperture. She never gave up or backed down, and she_certainly_ never cried.

A loud rumble of thunder rang out from the clouds as the sound of the wind and rain increased. With a small crack, the lights in her apartment went out.

"God damn it." Chell mumbled to herself. Her apartment was installed with an old fashioned fusebox, which meant that her power would be out until she could buy replacements.

_'I'll get more in the morning,'_ she decided, as she rummaged through her desk drawer for candles.

Suddenly, a sound rang through her apartment, barely audible over the wind outside.

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

Chell froze. Was that her door? She checked her watch. It was 1:38 AM. As the wind and the rain howled outside, Chell approached the door, then after a moment of hesitation, opened it a few inches and peeked outside. Her heart skipped a beat. Although it was dark, the figure that stood there was unmistakeable. She would almost prefer an axe murderer on her doorstep. Standing in front of her, soaking wet, hanging her head, and looking absolutely dejected, was a very familiar female android.

"What do you want?" Spat Chell at the pitiful figure in front of her.

GLaDOS looked up at Chell. Rain was streaming down her cheeks. With the expression on her face, it almost looked like she was crying, but Chell knew better.

It seemed like a long time before either of them said anything.

"I need to talk to you." Said the android.

"We have nothing to talk about." Chell shouted over the wind and rain.

"Please?"

Chell paused, before giving an irritated sigh and opening the door. Letting GLaDOS inside, she closed the door and went back to her desk to light some candles. GLaDOS looked around Chell's apartment. Spotting the half eaten container of ice-cream, GLaDOS opened her mouth, then closed it. She took off her coat and hung it on one of the hooks next to the door, then turned towards Chell.

Closing her eyes and furrowing her brow, GLaDOS spoke: "I want to… apologize. For the way I acted. And for the things I said."

"Really." Chell said, unconvinced.

"Yes. I… overreacted." She said, glancing at the blank wall where Chell's large mirror used to be.

"You're damn right you overreacted!" Chell said, raising her voice slightly. "That's your problem. You take everything so goddamn personally! You constantly dish out these sarcastic insults in what's obviously an attempt to make _yourself_ feel better, you don't care about anything I say or do and just a second ago it actually looked like it _hurt_ you to admit that you were wrong about something!"

GLaDOS opened her mouth, but Chell cut her off loudly.

"SHUT UP. I was crying for _two days_ because of you. You don't even care, do you? You know what, _Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System_? You're just a bad person. Oh wait, sorry, a bad _computer_."

GLaDOS shrank back uncharacteristically, lowering her eyes to the floor. She stood there, shuffling her feet, her lips trembling slightly at Chell's last comment.

The two women remained still for a moment, then Chell's expression softened, and she reached out to GLaDOS, resting her hand gently on the android's shoulder.

"GLaDOS, I didn't mean that… I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. That's… Everything you said is true." Admitted GLaDOS quietly, "Except for one thing."

"What's that?" Demanded Chell.

GLaDOS finally looked up to meet Chell's harsh gaze.

"I _do_ care."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Not sure about this chapter. I may go back and edit it at some point, but for now I suppose it'll do. **

* * *

Chell stepped away from GLaDOS, shaking her head.

"I'm not stupid GLaDOS. That's NOT going to fucking work on me."

"I… But Chell-" pleaded GLaDOS, but Chell cut her off.

"If you really cared about me, none of this would have happened."

"I didn't _mean_ for this to happen. Do you think I wanted this? That I planned for things to go this way?" said the android, growing slightly more defensive, "I've already told you I overreacted. I was wrong. You were right. I don't know what else I can say to make things better between us."

"Oh come on, you don't-" This time, it was Chell's turn to be interrupted.

"You keep acting like I _wanted_ to hurt you. Like I find some sort of pleasure in causing you any sort of pain. I _didn't_ mean to hurt you. I _don't_ want to hurt you. There was a time when I did. A time when all I wanted was to see you suffer, but that's not me anymore. I look back on myself and… I hate what I was. But that's not me anymore. Chell… I've changed. _You_ changed me, and I don't know why you don't see that."

There was a long silence. Chell swallowed and closed her eyes. Her lips were trembling. Her vision was growing staidly blurrier as tears once again came to her eyes. Sitting down on the couch behind her, she buried her face in her hands, her chest quivering with small sobs. GLaDOS tentatively joined her, sitting close to Chell and taking her hand.

"Chell…" GLaDOS began, "I do care. I care about you more than I've ever genuinely cared about anything. Or anybody."

Chell pulled her hand away from GLaDOS's and gave her a deadly glare, the tears in her eyes and on her cheeks sparkling in the flickering candle light.

"Well you've got a fucking funny way of showing it."

GLaDOS would have been crying too, if she'd installed tear ducts in her android. She felt helpless. She was trying to apologize, but Chell was rejecting her. However, if Chell was acting this way because of what had happened between them, then GLaDOS had brought this on herself. 'I _deserve_ to be rejected,' she thought.

After a long silence, GLaDOS spoke. "Chell, I… I don't know what else to say."

"There isn't anything left to talk about, GLaDOS." Said Chell, looking pointedly away from GLaDOS.

"Do you want me to leave?"

Chell sighed, then stood up and walked over to the window, looking at the weather outside.

"How did you get here?"

"I walked." Said GLaDOS simply.

"You walked all the way here in this?" Said Chell, looking over her shoulder in surprise at GLaDOS, who was still siting on the couch.

GLaDOS nodded.

Giving another heavy sigh, Chell turned back around to face the android.

"You can stay."

GLaDOS gave a small nod of relief.

"That's good, because my energy supply is almost depleted."

"I uh… I've never asked you this, but can you eat?" Said Chell after a short pause.

"To power myself? I considered implementing a digestive system as a source of energy, but it's an extraordinarily inefficient system. I would need to be outputting less than one fifteenth the energy that I am now in order to keep myself powered on with food alone. I can of course taste things, if that's what you were asking about."

"Well, what's going to happen?" Asked Chell. "There's no power here." She said, gesturing to the darkness all around them.

"I can't let myself die, or I might risk losing data. I'll shut down for the night, then tomorrow… I suppose the power in this building may come back on."

"I need to get more fuses. Can you charge yourself here, or do I need to carry you back home?" She ended, rather sarcastically.

"I brought a cable." Said GLaDOS, holding up the cable in question. "It'll be a slow charge, but once it's finished, I can leave." She finished the sentence quietly, as if she didn't want to imagine leaving again.

"Alright." Said Chell.

There was a long and uncomfortable silence, then Chell walked into her room, closing the door behind her.


End file.
